Author: admin

CLARE couples who want to marry with the backdrop of a romantic view or to have a civil ceremony in the hotel where their reception is to be held will have to go join a queue more than a year long in Limerick.

At present, although some of Clare’s most beautiful spots would get the thumbs up as places where civil ceremonies would be allowed, staffing at the Clare registry offices is such that all civil marraiges are being dealt with through Limerick.

And with the recruitment ban in the public service, staff in the Limerick office can’t meet all the requests for civil ceremonies.

Bride-to-be Jennifer Flynn from Westbury was told the next date on which a registrar could come to her chosen hotel is a weekday a year from now.

“I was amazed because I was told three months notice was necessary but I never would have thought they were so booked up,” she told The Clare People .

Staff at the the Ennis registrar’s office confirmed that civil ceremonies for couples in Clare are currently being conducted in the Limerick office.

“We go through Limerick for the civil ceremonies at present. The couples have to contact the registrar there and give three months notice and the Limerick office will take it from there,” she said.

Sources in the registrars office also confirmed that the staff there are stretched and could not meet the growing demand in Clare for civil marraiges in situ.

For Jennifer, who plans to marry partner Colm next year, it means thinking it out again.

“We have the option of getting married in the registry office and then going to our reception and that’s probably what we will have to do. Neither of us are religious so we don’t want a church wedding. But the registry office seems so cold and impersonal and it means we’ll only be able to have our witnesses and a couple of other people at the actual marraige. I’m sure the registrar is very nice and will do everything possible to make it special but why make it legal to marry outside the office and then not have enough people to make that a possibility?” she said.

THE first march aimed at legalising cannabis ever to take place in Clare is scheduled to go ahead in Ennis on Wednesday, August 10.

The march, which is being organised by Bunratty woman Niamh O’Brien, will include a “peaceful protest” and march in the county town followed by an information session at a venue in Ennis yet to be confirmed.

Ms O’Brien, who operated her own business in Ennis, suffers from a painful and debilitating bent spine and uses medicinal cannabis to treat the pain. The use of medicinal cannabis is legal in many states in America as well as in a number of EU countries but is currently treated no differently from the use on recreational cannabis in Ireland.

The Clare branch of the Legalisation of Cannabis in Ireland organisation is encouraging people who have doubts about the movement to come to the meeting and voice their concerns.

“I am hoping to have a little peaceful protest march through Ennis to a place where we can have a meeting and a proper questions and answers session. I would hope that concerned parents, drugs councillors, politicians, nurses and doctors would come along to that. I am hoping to get a large group of people in to talk about this, especially people who are seeing people abusing drugs each day at the side of the street,” Niamh told The Clare People yesterday.

“This is an opportunity to question the Government on the current laws because we feel they are not working. I think it is more important that the people who don’t agree with us come along. It’s about opening up a dialogue and education. We want to show people that prohibition just doesn’t work and has always made things worse.”

One of the main speakers on the day will be Irish American Vincent Lavery, who was the personal secretary to assassinated US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy and a pro-legalisation campaigner.

“This is the first time that something like this will happen in Clare so I think it will be an important day for Clare people to come out and let their opinion on this matter be heard. We are still waiting to confirm the day of the march 100 per cent but when we do we will let people know,” continued Niamh.

Cannabis has been proved to have medicinal benefits as an anti-inflammatory, as a pain relief, to combat depression and anxiety, to promote appetite and to help people who have Alzheimer’s disease, MS and Parkinsons. The Facebook page of LCI, Clare now has just under 1,000 people following it.

HOMES IN seaside areas in Clare are selling at the moment, while more cash buyers have come into the market in recent weeks. However, overall house prices in Clare are showing no signs of increasing.

According to the latest Daft House Price Report for the second quarter of this year, house prices fell on average by 5.1 per cent. The average asking price for a house in June of this year was € 196,000, which is a fall of 47 per cent on the 2007 peak, according to Daft.

According to Daft, a two-bed house in Clare currently has an asking price of € 108,000. A threebed house has a tag of € 155,000; a four-bed is priced at € 229,000 and a five-bed has an asking price of € 279,000.

These prices are decreases on the figures, compared with the first quarter of 2010. Then, a two-bed house in Clare had an asking price of € 144,000, while a three bed was priced at € 194,000. A fourbed house was priced at € 276,000, while a five-bed was deemed to have a price of € 326,000.

Ennis-based auctioneer Diarmuid McMahon of Sherry Fitzgerald McMahon said yesterday that the Daft figures “are consistent on asking prices. They are not on sold prices. Prices nationally have fallen by between 40 per cent to 60 per cent between 2007 and now and have fallen in Clare by between 40 per cent and 60 per cent”.

“We’re seeing a lot more cash buyers coming into the market. There are apartments for sale around the town of Ennis that you would get rent for between € 450 and € 500 per month and that you would buy for between € 50,000 and € 60,000,” said Mr McMahon.

“The majority of our sales now are cash buyers. They are coming back into the market now because they can see value,” he added.

“Some of the seaside properties are selling well. We are selling a lot in Kilkee; selling for prices the vendors are willing to accept,” he said.

Some property owners in seaside resorts are not losing money because they bought before the peak in 2007.

“They are selling. The prices are down considerably,” he said.

Looking ahead, Mr Mahon predicts, “I’d say the best scenario by the end of this year is stabilisation. I think that stabilisation is starting to happen in better locations. Good quality houses will trade at prices that I think will be the same in six months’ time. I think eventually, in four to five to 10 years, you will get price increases but they would be in line with inflation.”

THE future of the proposed Ballyvaughan to Galway ferry link will be decided this week as an independent survey group arrives in north Clare to speak to locals and complete the feasibility study which will be used to determine whether the project should continue.

The Spyria Partnership will be going door to door in the Ballyvaughan, Fanore, Kilfenora and Lisdoonvarna areas this week, asking local people to complete a survey.

This survey, as well as market research into the commercial feasibility of the link, will be used by the survey team to make a recommenda- tion on the future of the ferry link.

A meeting of all stakeholders will also take place in St John’s Hall in Ballyvaughan on Friday morning from 10am. This meeting is designed to attract local business people and to allow anyone who may be indirectly affected by the link being established to have their voice heard on the project.

“This meeting is aimed at guesthouses and any tourism attractions who could benefit from this and from having more people travelling to and from Galway on the ferry,” said Gwen Ryan, chair of the Ballyvaughan Bay Hop Group.

“It is about teasing out how the service would work. This is a com- munity-based service so we want to get people’s opinions on this. We don’t have a commercial operator behind this just yet.

“They are also going to go from house to house with a survey for the people who might think of using the service to commute themselves. We will be trying to get a leaflet into every house in the area and we also have a survey that can be completed on-line.

“We had a survey in the past but the Spyria people have a more detailed survey that they need to have completed for the feasibility study. So if anyone has completed the old online survey, we would ask them in particular to come back to the website and complete the new survey again if they want to have their voices heard.”

The group from Spyria Partnership will be in the Ballyvaughan area from July 6 to 9.

The response that they receive here will largely decide the outcome of the feasibility study.

“The people who I have contacted all think that this is a wonderful idea so I guess what I am trying to do now is make everyone aware of what is going on, especially the people who are stakeholders and will benefit from this ferry link if it becomes a reality,” continued Gwen.

Anyone interested in completing the new survey should contact www. ballyvaughanbayhop.com.

A BURNING candle in the sitting room of a house may have caused the death of a 53-year-old man in a house fire over the weekend.

Michael Kennedy died after a fire broke out at a newly-renovated singlestorey home on the Grange Road in Ballina in the early hours of Sunday.

Two other people – Mr Kennedy’s wife and a friend – who were also in the house at the time, escaped from another room. However, Mr Kennedy became trapped in the sitting room.

He was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was taken to Limerick Regional Hospital for a post mortem examination, which was carried out by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis.

The fire broke out after 2am. The scene was preserved and a Garda technical examination took place on Sunday.

“The fire started in the sitting room in the house. The sitting room was very badly damaged,” said Inspector John O’Sullivan of Killaloe Garda Station, who is heading up the enquiry into the tragic accident.

He said the two women who escaped from the house were “badly shaken” but fortunately did not receive serious burn injuries. Gardaí have taken statements from the ladies, in an effort to determine the exact cause of the fire.

LAHINCH ar tist Michael Hanrahan wi ll later this mont h become the only l iving Irish ar tist to have a piece of his work included in the most exclusive ar t collection in the world.

Michael, who was the only ar tist accredited to cover the Queen’s historic visit to Ireland, will fly out from Shannon Ai r por t later this month to hand-deliver one of his works to Buckingham Palace.

The for mer banker, who reti red from the financial world to become an ar tist just five years ago, received a letter from Buckingham Palace last Wednesday, informing him t hat the Queen would be “ver y pleased” to receive the painti ng for her collection.

The painting, which depicts President Mar y McAleese and the Queen at the Garden of Remembrance, was on display at Kenny’s Ar t Galler y in Lahinch over t he weekend, and will hang at White Ar t Gallery in Dublin for three weeks before being hand-del ivered by Michael to Buckingham Palace.

“The letter came into my postbox yesterday and I knew it was an i mpor tant letter when I spot ted the royal seal on t he back of it. The letter had been sent from the Queen’s private secretar y telling me that the Queen would be ver y pleased to receive one of my paintings. I was overwhel med and ver y honoured,” said Michael.

“The Queen has one of t he biggest and most expensive ar t collections i n the world. Some are held in Buckingham Palace and some at another palace in Edinburgh.

“This work will be exhibited all around t he UK as par t of the Queen’s diamond jubilee next year and it is amazing to think that an ar tist from Clare would be par t of this collection.

“I will be t he proudest man in Ireland flying from Shannon over to London with that painting to deliver it to the Queen.”

Michael was t he only non-photographer given full access to record t he Queen’s visit to Ireland earlier t his year in its enti rety.

“I was there for t he four days of t he t rip and I think I had a unique role to play in recording the event for future generations. It was an historic occasion. Most of t he work was done back in the Cour thouse Gallery and Studios in Ennistymon,” continued Michael.

“As an ar tist, I had the oppor t unity to think about it and do somet hing a bit different. A painting is different from a photograph – it’s framed and it is an inter pret ation. I t hink this puts more of an emphasis on people to t hink about what t hey are looking at. This was an opport unity t hat I couldn’t pass up.”

A COMMUNITY is fighting back against vandals who smashed headstones in the historic Kilquane cemetary. The group, who put in massive work to restore the cemetery, are back in action and this time they are erecting a CCTV camera to stop further attacks on the Parteen burial place.

The pole for the camera was erected at the weekend, and local gardaí, as well as the garda helicopter, have been brought in to protect the cemetery.

“There hasn’t been as much damage done in that graveyard since the Williamites smashed headstones 300 years ago,” said Donal Ó Riain, a local historian who was closely involved in the restoration work. “This is one of the most historic structures in the parish. It dates back to the sixth century and the church building dates back to just after the time of St Patrick,” he told The Clare People .

“We’re putting up the camera and we’re working on repairing the headstones. We also had a meeting and invited the two local guards and they have agreed to keep a particular eye on the area.”

Local Fianna Fail councillor, Cathal Crowe, has been closely involved with the cemetery committee and he is helping them get the right camera for the job. “I’ve also asked the garda helicopter patrol, which flies over the city, to see if they can hover over Kilquane, particularly at weekends as it’s an isolated patch of ground,” he said.

The CCTV equipment will cost a large amount of money, but Donal is confident that they will achieve their goal. “We’ve always had fantastic support from the community for anything we’ve done at Kilquane because it’s such an historic structure. We’re having a fundraiser in the Tailrace Bar in Parteen this Friday, with Larry McEvoy playing. I hope we will get the same support we have always had,” said Donal.

VOLUNTEERISM in Clare is at an all time high as unemployed people in the county offer their skill for free to worthy organisations in the county.

Figures released from by the CAO last week reveal that the numbers signing on in the county rose by almost 200 last month – the first monthly increase since the Live Register hit its all time high in the county in January.

The news that there were 10,400 signing on in the county in June is disappointing as it comes after four months of straight drops in the the Live Register figure in the county.

The chairperson of the the Clare Citizen Information Service, Paul Woulfe, said that while there is no sign in the number of unemployed dropping, there are now many schemes to help them when they do find themselves out of work.

“We are seeing more and more people coming into us – people are still being let go and the trend is not changing at all at the moment. But there are a lot of schemes there to help people and the information about them is changing all the time. We would advice anyone who becomes unemployed to come into the office to see us or to look at any of our websites to see what their options are,” he said.

“The big thing for people when they lose their job is dealing with the immediate financial issues. A lot of people have mortgages and other expenditures so they have to change their budget a lot. If there is serious debt there or if they are finding that they are running into debt then we can refer them onto MABS who can help them with that.

“We do help by advising people on how they can fill their time in a good way. They might be interested in doing some voluntary work so we would be sending them onto the Clare Volunteer Centre who could assess their skills.

“People have more time on their hands than they are used to so we would be encouraging people to look at their options for upskilling and pointing them towards the VEC or other organisations. Or we could send them to the Adult Guidance Service if they want to get back as a mature student or to a jobs facilitator at the social welfare office if someone has an idea and wants to go out on their own. So we can look at the various options and then advise them where they can go and get more information and support that can help them.”

For help from the Citizen Information Service check out losingyourjob. ie or call into the Clare Citizen Information Services offices on Bank Place in Ennis.

IT TOOK a week longer than expected, but the heroic efforts by a Quin man to raise money for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland came to a joyful conclusion on Sunday.

52-year-old Brendan Cooney set out the aim of kayaking 124 kilometres from Athlone Weir to Two Mile Gate in Killaloe within a four-day period.

The challenge, in memory of his mother Nancy, was initially timetabled from June 23 to 26. While the first two days were a success, Brendan encountered tough conditions when he got to Meelick last Saturday week, June 25. He put the challenge on hold, but efforts to continue the following day were also hampered by the poor weather. He waited for a few days and managed to complete his challenge over the weekend, culminating on Sunday.

“I had to come out of it [last Saturday week]. The weather was just too bad, I had to walk out from the canoe on Saturday. We went back on Sunday morning but I was advised to go no further,” he told The Clare People .

He kayaked from Meelick to Rossmore in Galway to Williamstown to Mountshannon, before eventually reaching his destination, Two Mile Gate, on Sunday. He got great assistance along the way from his brother Austin who provided short support.

“I got to my destination, even if it was a week late,” he said. “If I took until Christmas, I was going to finish. With the type of canoe I had – a solo canoe – the wind has a big bearing,” he said.

Now that the kayaking is out of the way, Brendan will set his sights on collecting money for the Alzheimer Society. He hasn’t set any targets in terms of fundraising and says he doesn’t mind if he raises € 100 or € 10,000.

“That’s the next job. I have to take up the [sponsorship] cards and money. The aim is to raise awareness of the disease and also the carers. They do a great job,” he said.

He is also considering the possibility of doing a similar event next year, after a well-earned rest! “I’ll see what happens and how things progress from here. It’s a long way between here and next summer,” he said.

THE new First Citizen of Clare has told his fellow councillors and local government chiefs that cutting rates is key to kick-starting a resurgence in the county’s economic fortunes.

Mayor of Clare Pat Hayes has said that tackling the rates problem within the county will be a priority during his year in office, even if it means introducing cut-backs in other areas of Clare County Council’s yearly budget.

“The rates issue is critical,” Mayor Hayes told The Clare People . “A lot of businesses in Clare are struggling to survive. They have cut every other cost, but when you take the rates, from commercial rates to sewerage and water charges, it is a huge burden on ordinary businesses.

“The small businesses across the county are the ones that are going to get us out the trouble we’re in. They’re the ones that are going to provide employment. Clare County Council needs to recognise this.

“If cutting rates means we have to cut services, they we have to look at that. It we don’t do something, our rates base is going to fall. And with new charges that are put in place by the government, it’s important that the funding from these charges filter back into local government immediately.

“In the next few months, prior to any budget, I want all councillors in Clare to have a real look at what we can do to make this council leaner – it is important to look how we do all our business in the sake of finances. If we don’t continue to make strides in that, our rates base is going to fall. It is a key thing for me as mayor of Clare,” he added.

“I’m following in the footsteps of former councillors from East Clare who served in the chair,” Cllr Hayes told fellow councillors at the Clare County Council AGM last Thursday. “Sean Brady from 1932 to ’69, Johnny Moloney from 1984 to ’85 and Colm Wiley from 1993 to ’95. They were Fianna Fáil men as well and it was great honour to follow people like that,” he added.

“We have great hope right across this county. We as a council have been putting in place policies to lead this county forward. You can see that in the County Development Plan in the Clare Tourism Forum.

“What’s good about Clare is its people, its culture and its sharing capacity to help each other. We need to celebrate the good things of Clare and come out with a positive attitude of celebrating that. We need to do that on a monthly basis. Every month we should look at an aspect of our county and celebrate that.”

47-year-old Mr Hayes is the fifth Fianna Fáil mayor of Clare since the title was created in 2001 and the 20th chair of the county council from the party from the Fianna Fáil benches.